A Girl and Her (Extremely Patient and Unnaturally Photogenic) Best Friend

Photographer Tara Israel takes her very beloved and admittedly funny-looking Pomeranian almost everywhere she shoots—from rural Kentucky liquor stores to salty fishing boats off the Hamptons. And she has the delightfully quirky photos to prove it.

Interview by Noah Rosenberg

We had a million pets when I was a child. Cats, rats, dogs, salamanders… and if we got one we wanted it to have a friend. One cat turned into five, rats came in pairs, a turtle lived in our bathtub because someone broke the tank while cleaning it. I used the rats in a drunk driving PSA I made in a high school film class. We had a Doberman that ate $500 worth of Girl Scout cookies. I was mad because I was eight and wanted to eat $500 of Girl Scout cookies myself. I still do.

So it makes sense that I wanted a dog of my own when I went off to college. A big rescue dog that I would train to do impressive things and name after a First Lady. I loved a boxer I saw at the shelter. It was the color of red clay with muscles like a real boxer. I looked at collies and rottweilers online. However, as most love stories go, it didn’t turn out as planned. I ended up with a three-pound pomeranian puppy from a pet store. He was on sale because he was too tall and had scraggly …